When God Speaks, Are You Listening?

“Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, ‘Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ This is desert.”

ACTS 8:26

 

PONDER THIS

When you’re sensitive to the direction of the Spirit, God will lead you to somebody who needs Jesus. Those of you who are students, tomorrow you’re going to find some student, if you’ll be sensitive. Perhaps God is preparing some student for you to witness to. Those of you who are business people, if you’re sensitive, God’s going to lead you to somebody. God is working on an individual. Perhaps there’s somebody who went to church on Sunday, seeking the wells of religion, but came away dry. Maybe that person knows the Bible, but doesn’t know how to be saved. You may say, “Well, God never brings anybody to me.” Oh? Could it be that you’re not listening?

When was a time God enabled you to share with another person because you were sensitive to His prompting?

When might have been a time you missed God’s prompting because you were focused on other things?

PRACTICE THIS

Take time in your normal routine today to stop and ask God where He is leading you, that He might use you to point others to Him.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Listen for God’s Direction

“Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, ‘Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ This is desert. So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet.” ACTS 8:26-28

 

PONDER THIS

God never leaves a fully surrendered, cleansed vessel unused. You want to be used? Would you like to be a witness? Would you like to be an evangelist? Would you like to meet the Lord Jesus Christ bringing your sheaves with you? Would you like to rejoice in this life and in the world to come? I know you would. Say, “Yes, Lord, yes.”

You need to be sensitive to the direction of the Spirit. We’ve been talking today about following Christ. If Christ is leading and you’re not listening, then you’re in difficulty. From a human viewpoint, what the Holy Spirit told Philip to do did not really make a lot of sense. He’s in this incredibly wonderful revival in Samaria, and God tells him to leave Samaria and go to Gaza.

God’s ways are often unexplained. I mean, God did not say, “Now Philip, I want you to go here. There’s a man of great importance that I want you to meet.” God just said go, and it’s as if Philip went under sealed orders. Now, I don’t mean that you’re to go off willy-nilly, here and there, but are you sensitive enough that if the Holy Spirit of God tells you to go, you’ll go? When you are open and willing, God is faithful. He will show you where to go.

Have you ever felt God’s direction of the Holy Spirit? What was that like?

Are you open and willing to be used by God? What is holding you back from living fully for Him?

PRACTICE THIS

Seek God’s direction through prayer and ask Him to show you who to share your faith with today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Your Conscience Responsive to God’s Direction?

“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.” 1 TIMOTHY 4:1-2

 

PONDER THIS

You have probably heard it said, “Let your conscience be your guide.” That is incomplete advice. The reason you can’t let conscience be your guide is your conscience is like a thermostat: it can be set to operate anywhere. It’s like a sundial. You can look at a sundial with a flashlight and make it register any time at all. If your conscience is defiled, then you can’t let your conscience be your guide. Some people think they are doing the right thing because their conscience isn’t being bothered. That doesn’t mean what you’re doing is right; it may mean that your conscience is defiled, that you’ve set it by the wrong standard.

Now not only can you have a defiled conscience, but you can also have what the Bible calls a seared conscience. When this passage talks about someone having his or her conscience seared with a hot iron, it gives the image of taking a branding iron and burning a mark on the flesh of an animal. That animal is seared with a hot iron, and then there’s no feeling there at all. Over time, when we reject God’s direction, our consciences are seared and numbed toward right or wrong. When we decide what to do, our responsibility is two-fold: we need to consider how it makes us feel and what the Word of God says about it. Then we are to act in obedience to Him.

When have you been too deeply influenced by your conscience?

How can you grow in responding to God’s direction?

PRACTICE THIS

Seek God’s guidance about what to do in a situation you are going through and do as He says.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Don’t Be Like the Mule

Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you. (Psalm 32:9)

Picture God’s people as a farmyard of all sorts of animals. God cares for his animals, he shows them where they need to go, and supplies a barn for their protection.

But there is one beast on this animal farm that gives God an awful time, namely, the mule. He’s stupid and he’s stubborn and you can’t tell which comes first — stubbornness or stupidity.

Now the way God likes to get his animals into the barn for their food and shelter is by teaching them that they all have a personal name and then calling them by name. “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go” (Psalm 32:8).

But the mule will not respond to that sort of direction. He is without understanding. So God gets in his pick-up truck and goes out in the field, puts the bit and bridle in the mule’s mouth, hitches it to the truck, and drags him stiff-legged and snorting all the way into the barn.

That is not the way God wants his animals to come to him for blessing and protection.

One of these days it is going to be too late for that mule. He’s going to get clobbered with hail and struck by lightning, and when he comes running, the barn door is going to be shut.

Therefore, don’t be like the mule. “Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle.”

Instead, let everyone who is godly come to God in prayer at a time when he may be found (Psalm 32:6).

The way not to be a mule is to humble ourselves, to come to God in prayer, to confess our sins, and to accept, as needy little farmyard chicks, the direction of God into the barn of his protection and provision.

John Piper 

Do You Heed God’s “No”?

PRAY OVER THIS

“Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.”

Acts 16:6-10

 

PONDER THIS

Have you ever tried to teach someone else to drive a car? What’s the first thing you show that person: the accelerator or the brake? You show him the brake, and if he says, “I’m not interested in the brake,” you probably say, “Give me the keys back.” Those of us who know how to drive know how important the brake is. Before God will ever show you the accelerator, He must show you the brake. If you’re not interested in the restraint of the Spirit, you'll never know the release of the Spirit. The path of life is strewn with the wrecks of people who have high-powered engines and faulty brakes. They don’t know how to listen to God’s “No.” God’s “No” is as important as God’s “Go.” Someone said, “A fanatic is somebody who, having lost sight of his goal, increases his speed.” Do you know the restraint of the Spirit? Can God say “no” to you, and you listen?

When have you sensed the Spirit telling you “No” about something you really wanted? How did you respond?

How often do you ask God, with sincere openness, what He would have you do?

PRACTICE THIS

Ask for God’s direction in the matters of your life.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers